Looking back at Lasith Malinga's illustrous career for Mumbai Indians, as he announces his retirement from T20 cricket

Date: 15th September 2021

Over the 13 year history of Mumbai Indians, we have had multiple legends represent our team, wear our colors on the field. Even in our coaching staff, we have had some of the biggest names in history. But who is the first player that comes to your mind when you think of Mumbai Indians? If you are a purist MI fan, you'll say Sachin. I am sure many of us started to follow the franchise because of him. The newer generation would say Rohit, the 5-time IPL winning captain. For those loving the sheer power hitting aspect of the game will say Pollard. Some might say Bhajji, Rayudu. Modern day fans might even say Hardik or Bumrah. But one of the most prolific players, not just for Mumbai Indians, but dare I say the best player in the IPL history, has to be Lasith Malinga.

Yes there is Suresh Raina, known as Mr.IPL, or Virat Kohli, always amongst the runs and having that almost unimaginable 2016. There’s Chris Gayle, the most dominating batsman and the best player in T20 history, and there are also consistent performers like ABD, Warner. There’s Thala Dhoni, setting some leadership goals, and our very own Rohit Sharma up there, finding the perfect balance between captaincy and batting. Then what makes Malinga so special, and stand out amongst all these huge names?

Lasith Malinga’s numbers speak for themselves. 170 wickets picked despite playing just 9 seasons, and being the leading wicket taker in the IPL history till he retired after the 13th edition. Malinga was far ahead of his generation. One of those bowlers, against whom when the teams strategise, they consider the T20 game to be just 16 over long. Coming in to bowl whenever the captain tells him to and giving the breakthrough, and making the most out of the death overs!

There was a whole generation of Indian fast bowlers who faced the wrath of middle order tonkers of the ball in the death overs, and their skills have often been questioned based on these performances. It has always been the most difficult phase to bowl for a fast bowler. Trying to ball a yorker is the most recommended solution to keep the batsmen under check, but it is the most difficult delivery to execute. You miss the yorker a little bit, and it ends up being in the slot or a full toss. The reason behind Malinga’s supremacy is the sheer consistency in bowling these yorkers, with great pace, often mixed up with a sudden slower one. It’s a rare skill set, combined with longevity and consistency.


The unplayable phenomenon

Lasith Malinga shot to fame when he picked 4 wickets in 4 balls against South Africa in the 2007 World Cup. His slinging action was an unconventional bowling style that made it difficult for the batsmen to read him. In the inaugural IPL auction, Sachin Tendulkar insisted on bagging Lasith Malinga in the auction at any cost. Unluckily though a week after the auction, Malinga injured his knee and was ruled out for the entire inaugural season. Mumbai Indians roped in Dwayne Bravo as his replacement, and the first time Malinga donned the MI jersey was in the season opener of the 2009 IPL against the Chennai Super Kings.

On the very second ball of his IPL career, Malinga sent back the CSK opener Parthiv Patel back to the pavilion on a duck. He went to pick 3 wickets in that match and total 11 wickets in the first 4 matches.Mumbai finished 7th in the league, the only time they failed to qualify for the playoffs without Lasith Malinga in the squad. Malinga picked 18 wickets in 2009, and 15 more in the next season. He was retained alongside Harbhajan, Sachin and Pollard ahead of the 2011 mega auction.

The reason why the team retained him was on display in the first game of 2011 itself, where he completely dismantled the Delhi Daredevils’ batting lineup with figures of 2011. (Back in those times, Mumbai used to win their inaugural matches.)The start he got in 2011 was like an early boost for the rest of the season. Malinga picked 16 wickets in the first 6 games, and picked at least one wicket for 12 games in a row (2 or more wickets 10 times). He won the Purple Cap picking 28 wickets, beating his own teammate Munaf Patel who was on the second place at 22. In 2012, he became the leading wicket taker in IPL history and has topped the table ever since. He picked 20 wickets in the first 8 games of IPL 2012, picking at least 2 wickets every game!!

At that point, Malinga had picked 81 wickets in just 50 matches, at a stupendous average of 14.93! Despite bowling the most difficult overs, including the death overs meant for slogging, his economy rate was mere 6.26! I doubt if there is going to be any bowler who can match those numbers.

When Mumbai Indians won the silverware for the first time, the 2011 Champions League, Malinga picked 10 wickets at an average of 11.7 and economy rate 5.85; less than run a ball! He single handedly won the Semi Final for MI against Somerset with figures of 4/20, which is one of the best displays of fast bowling spells in the T20 history. Apart from being an unplayable bowler, Malinga displayed his other skills too that season. Walking in at 106/7 against CSK requiring 53 to win in just 28 balls, Malinga played a handy knock of 37*(18) to win the game for his side. He was rightly awarded the player of the series award.


Still the best

Between 2013-2015, Malinga’s performance downgraded in his own standards, as he picked up 60 wickets at an average of 19 over these three seasons. Those insane career numbers finally turned into something that a human being, still an exceptional one, could achieve. In the 2013 Final, Malinga picked the key wickets of Hussey and Raina in the first over itself. These were the two players who had beaten MI in the Qualifier 1 comfortably a week ago, and eventually Chennai couldn't recover from the early losses. Mumbai Indians finally won the title they had been grinding to win from so long. Lasith Malinga was one of the most important players in Mumbai’s consistent performances for the last 4 overs, and even though the trophy was dedicated to Sachin, it was a trophy for that quartet MI retained in the 2010 auctions.

In 2014, entering the tournament as the World T20 winning captain, Malinga provided MI with a head start picking 4 wickets in the first game itself, but it turned out to be a season Mumbai couldn’t capitalise on any of those headstarts and lost the first 5 games. Malinga had to fly with the Sri Lankan team for the England tour, and was going to miss the last week of the IPL league stage. Krishmar Santokie and later Corey Anderson replaced Malinga. Mumbai Indians pulled one of the greatest comebacks that week, including the historic chase against Rajasthan Royals. To be honest, had Malinga played that game, RR wouldn’t have reached 189 in the first place, making the chase a little less interesting.

In 2015, Mumbai once again lost 5 of the first 6 games. The comeback started when Malinga single handedly turned the game against SRH around with 4/23. Mumbai won 9 of their next 10 games, winning the trophy for the second time. Malinga’s another stand out performance was when he picked 3 wickets in the Qualifier 1 against CSK. In the final, he took two wickets, including Dhoni’s wicket. In the 2013-15 phase, Malinga’s role was also grooming young Indian fast bowling talent, especially a raw Jasprit Bumrah who had an unusual action just like Malinga did. They had a master-apprentice thing going on throughout this time, and a great chunk of credit for Bumrah's improvement as a bowler goes to Lasith Malinga.

Aging like wine

Malinga missed the entire 2016 season due to knee injury. Bumrah McClenaghan led the pace attack, with support from Tim Southee. The two overseas fast bowler strategy of MI looked a bit weak in the absence of Malinga. In 2017, Malinga made a comeback to the team, winning the IPL yet again. However, he was far from his best. He picked just 11 wickets, and not a single 3 wicket haul averaging 34. The age seemed to have caught up with the big guy. Mumbai Indians didn’t retain him, and for the first time since the inaugural season, Malinga was going to be auctioned. When Lasith Malinga’s name came up in the 2018 player auction, no bids were made. It was surprising that no team was willing to buy the leading wicket taker in the IPL history, but he had played just one T20 for Sri Lanka over the last year (picking up his IPL captain’s wicket) and was dealing with injuries here and there. As tough as it was to admit, Lasith Malinga seemed to be aging, and dare some say, it looked like Malinga was done. His association with Mumbai Indians continued, as he joined the team as the bowling mentor.


The 2018-19 season brought some major changes in Malinga’s career. The Sri Lankan cricket hit rock bottom after being eliminated in the first round of the Asia Cup. Malinga, despite aging so much, was still the leader of this pace attack. As the new year 2019 began, SLC appointed him as their captain to the New Zealand Tour. 2 weeks before the appointment, Lasith Malinga was drafted into the auction once again. Mumbai Indians had only one vacant overseas spot in their squad, as they released Mustafizur Rahman. Mumbai Indians picked Malinga at his base price of 2cr. The selection seemed a bit bizarre, but when MI pick someone, there is surely some research that goes behind it. He missed the first game of the season, as he was playing in South Africa that day.

He was selected in the Playing XI as soon as he was available for selection in the next game against RCB. Defending 7 runs of the last ball, Malinga allowed Dube to run just one and Mumbai won. It was later found out after the match that Malinga had bowled a no ball. He was wicketless for the first two games, but against his favorite opponents Chennai next, Malinga picked 3 wickets. After playing 3 games, Malinga was set to miss 3 more games as he had to represent Galle in the Super Provincial OD tournament in Sri Lanka. Just a night after his 3 wickets against Chennai, Malinga picked 7 wickets in a 10-over spell (incredible stamina), bowling Kandy out for 99. His team shared the trophy with Colombo, and Malinga returned to IPL.

He made his return memorable, picking up 4/31 against RCB, winning him his 6th and final Man of the Match award. For a player of Malinga's calibre, it's a shame that he has won just 6 of those awards. Malinga got to play at Chepauk for the first time after 7 years, since the Tamil Nadu government prohibited Sri Lankans from playing at the MA Chidambaram stadium. Malinga announced his return at the home of the rivals with another 4 wicket haul. In the last league game, he got 3 against KKR, including Russell's wicket on a duck. Malinga's 2019 was nothing like his 2017. He had aged, but aged like wine. He was amongst the wickets this season, picking 15 of those in just 10 games.

The final adieu

And then came the 2019 Final - three time Champions Mumbai Indians vs three time Champions Chennai Super Kings, aiming for that 4th title to prove their supremacy. Defending 149, Mumbai Indians managed to contain CSK to 88/4 in 15 overs. Lasith Malinga was given the 16th over, with the required run rate already 14.4 per over.Bravo hit him for a six first ball, followed by three fours from Watson. In a match where Bumrah and Rahul Chahar had conceded just 14 runs in their 4 allotted overs, Malinga was going at 14 runs an over. CSK required 9 off the last over, with Watson well into his 70s. It was a toss up for the captain between Malinga and Hardik Pandya. Hardik had bowled just one over, conceding just 3 off it, while Malinga had conceded 42 off 3. However, when it comes to occasion so big, experience needs to be valued over anything. Hardik had conceded a six to Manish Pandey with 7 required off the last ball a week ago, and the captain trusted Malinga to drive the team home.

He started with a yorker, a low full toss, and another yorker, conceding 1,2 and 1 runs in the first three balls. Watson was back on the strike, and he slapped another yorker from Malinga towards deep point. He went for an ambitious second run and was run out in the process. Shardul Thakur walked in, and faced a low full toss from Malinga. He couldn’t dispatch it for a winning boundary, but instead managed to run two. Last ball. Two to win. Lasith Malinga to Shardul Thakur. Malinga had aimed for the yorker every single ball, nailing it three times and ending up as a low full toss twice. It was obvious another yorker was coming, but what if Malinga brings out some surprise. Shardul was ready. Malinga pulled out a weapon out of his armoury, and bowled a pin point slow yorker. Shardul was plumb in front of the wicket, Malinga appealed, and as the umpire raised his finger, millions of fans popped out of their chair to celebrate the 4th title for the Mumbai Indians. Malinga kept his arms raised up, like he always dies, and was lifted by the birthday boy Kieron Pollard on his shoulders. That moment can be framed and put up in Mumbai Indians’ hall of fame forever. The two overseas players who never felt like outsiders, who had been a part of our family forever, rejoicing after playing crucial roles in the win.


The legacy

Prior to the 2020 season, Malinga pulled out of the IPL owing to personal reasons, and James Pattinson replaced him. It’s unfortunate that the fans missed out on the deadly Boult-Bumrah-Malinga trio. After finishing 5th on the table thrice in Malinga’s absence, Mumbai Indians won their 5th IPL title. Malinga was released by Mumbai Indians before the IPL auction 2021, and Malinga announced it on that very evening that he had retired from franchise cricket forever. A story that started with a wicket off his second ball, and ended with a wicket, both against the same franchise, and 168 more wickets in between. That trundling run up, jersey no.99, with his hair, often colored, frolicking around, with a big belly in the latter half of his career, followed by thumping his foot on the ground, and there comes the sling, that makes you believe every ball is going to a perfect toe-crushing or stump shattering yorker. The huge enthusiastic appeal when it turns out to be a wicket, and an even pleasant smile if he ends up being hit for a boundary - Lasith Malinga, the greatest legend for the generations to come.

Mumbai Indians have won 21 out of the 27 games played against Kolkata Knight Riders

Date: 12th April 2021

International cricket over the years has had its fair share of rivalries. The Australia-England rivalry called The Ashes, the India-Pakistan rivalry based on the history of the countries, India-Australia rivalry which is purely sports based, and many more. Rivalries are a part of every sport, and in club football the city based rivalries are pretty popular. The London derby, Madrid derby, Der Klasiker, and the one that tops all, The El Clasico.

With IPL yet in its initial years, and with no two teams based on the same city, rivalries are pretty rare. MI vs CSK is the IPL version of El Clasico, with the two sides facing each other in the finals 4 times. The other rivalries are yet to grow big, but the history of certain matchups make those ties interesting. MI vs KKR is a matchup that has produced mostly one sided results.


MI and KKR have faced each other 27 times in 13 years, including 25 league stage games and 2 playoffs. Mumbai Indians have won 21 games (both the playoffs), while KKR have managed just 6. That's a win percentage of 78%. No other team has a winning percentage this high against any team having played at least 7 matches. (The limit of 7 matches is applied to avoid the outliers, ensuring the teams played for more than 3 years).
Here is the statistical analysis of the Head to Head games -

Home vs Away
Both MI and KKR have traditionally pressed on home advantage in IPL. When it comes to MI vs KKR matches, KKR perform slightly better at home than away or neutral venues. But with players like Sachin and Rohit, who enjoy batting at the Eden Garden, MI have managed to maintain a high win loss ratio even at away venues At MI home - MI 8, KKR 1 At KKR home - MI 7, KKR 4 At neutral venues - MI 6, KKR 1 (KKR's only win at Wankhede was the game because of which SRK got banned)

How they fare when they are at the top

Out of the 13 seasons, Mumbai have won the championship 5 times, while KKR have won 2 seasons. Except 2016 and 2018, all the seasons since 2012 have been won by these two teams. Here's the division of the matches based on who won the trophy that year.
When KKR won - MI 1, KKR 3
When MI won - MI 9, KKR 2
When none of the two teams have won - MI 11, KKR 1

Winning streaks
The longest winning streak is 8 matches for Mumbai (1445 days) from the second leg of 2015 till their loss in the first leg of 2019. Surprisingly, even KKR have a small winning streak of 3 games (393 days, just preceding MI's 8 win streak), as they won both the games in their successful 2014 campaign.

Impact of Toss
Over such a long sample space, the number of times these teams have batted first or second, as well as the toss result has almost evened out, and so did the match results
When MI bat first - MI 9, KKR 3
When KKR bat first - MI 12, KKR 3
When MI win the toss - MI 12, KKR 3
When KKR win the toss - MI 9, KKR 3

Individual win %
Taking a look at individual winning percentage in the MI-KKR clashes, Sachin has a winning percentage of 90 (9 wins in 10), while Hardik Pandya has a winning percentage of 92! (11 wins in 12). The only loss for Hardik Pandya came in the match where he played one of his best innings, 91 of 34 balls.

Mumbai Indians face Kolkata Knight Riders on 13th April and 10th May at Chennai and Bangalore this season

How Mumbai Indians ace the team composition aspect, defining the role of every individual

Date: 17th February 2021

Despite a shaky start in the first two seasons, Mumbai Indians was already a force to reckon with by 2012. Despite not winning the IPL title, Mumbai had finished as the runners up in 2010, and finished 3rd and 4th in 2011 and 12. They topped the league table in 2010 as well. But what changed in 2013? From being a competitive team, how did Mumbai Indians become the best T20 franchise in history? Was it the players, the coaching staff, the ownership group, or a combination of everything?

Choosing a well balanced playing XI is one of the toughest tasks. Mumbai Indians follow certain simple rules, making their playing XIs balanced more often than not. It’s essential to have batting till no.7 and a 6th bowling option. This boils down to minimum 2 all rounders, 5 batsmen and 4 bowlers, with at least 2 spinners and at least 3 fast bowling options. We further breakdown this structure, and analyse in detail.

Openers


The two openers should have two contrasting roles. One must be an accumulator, who can bat for 10-15 runs ensuring the scoreboard keeps ticking, while the other must be able to make the most out of the powerplay. The two shots which bring the majority of runs in the powerplay are - squeezing a boundary through the infield gaps or picking up the ball over the infielders. It’s important that both the openers should be able to switch their roles according to the match situation and the opposition bowlers.

Currently, Rohit performs the role of the accumulator, while Quinton de Kock utilises the power play with his pickup shots. Previously, Lendl Simmons used to bat long (12 fifties in 29 games), while Parthiv made the most of the fielding restrictions. Back in 2013, Sachin used to make use of the gaps, while Dwayne Smith batted long with occasional pickup shots. Before 2013, Sachin was the accumulator, and apart from Jayasuriya, every other partner was more or less an accumulator as well. In 2018, Mumbai Indians went with an opening combo of Surya Kumar Yadav and Evin Lewis. While SKY could fetch the gaps, and Lewis could execute the pickup shots, both of them couldn't keep up the scoring rate after the power play because of the lack of clarity of the accumulator role. Eventually, both used to get out around the 10 over mark, leaving two new batsmen on the crease.

It has also been observed that a batting pair of an Indian and an overseas batsman often works.

In 2014, the Hussey-Dunk experiment didn’t seem to work, and in 2016, the Rohit-Parthiv combo didn’t look as solid either.

The middle order

The most important quality of a middle order batsman is the flexibility. The middle order should consist of players who can act like openers in case a wicket falls early. Till 2018, Rohit Sharma batted in the middle order, at no.3 or 4. In 2016, he tried opening the batting, and the lack of an experienced middle order put a lot of burden on him up top, as his wicket would mostly lead to collapses. Hence Rohit demoted himself down the order again. However, with SKY at no.3, Rohit can now finally open. MI currently have Ishan Kishan at no.4, who has also been an opener for his state team. The SKY-Kishan combo at 3 and 4 gives MI two backup openers, who can accumulate runs in case of early wickets, and can also rotate the strike in the middle overs, with an ability to accelerate.

Mumbai Indians’ biggest asset in middle order has been Ambati Rayudu, who had the flexibility to bat as an opener, was a master of the middle overs, and of time comes, he could finish the games off too (the last ball six against KKR in 2011). He displayed all of those qualities in the 2012 chase against RCB scoring 81*, which has to be one of the best knocks played by a middle order batsman. The middle order of Mumbai Indians has been no.3,4 (Rohit and Rayudu till 2017, Rohit and Nitish Rana earlier in 2017, SKY and Kishan since 2019), but in 2013, it was Karthik-Rohit-Rayudu at 3, 4, 5.

The engine room

After the middle order, the finishers come into the play. The man who has carried this department for MI since 2010 is Kieron Pollard. Since 2015, Hardik Pandya has been a valuable addition, and his elder brother Krunal completed an enviable engine room. In addition, Krunal Pandya can be promoted at no.5 in case of a collapse, as he can switch into an accumulator, negotiating the spin before switching back in the death overs. In his short stay at MI, Corey Anderson proved to be a good partner to Pollard as a finisher before Hardik Pandya took over. The Mumbai Indians’ finishers have traditionally been all rounders (except for Jos Buttler for a season), making sure that the engine room bats deep.




The bat deep no.8

By the end of the first three categories, we have our batting till no.7, with at least 2 all rounders. The no.8 should be someone who can hold a bat, and can swing it at times if needed. Currently the role is fulfilled by Nathan Coulter-Nile. Harbhajan Singh often fulfilled this role, although he batted at no.7 most of the times. But the addition of Krunal Pandya shifted him down to no.8, making him suit for the role further. Rishi Dhawan hit a boundary when MI needed 6 off 4 against RR in the 2013 Qualifier, batting at no.8. Karn Sharma, Mitchell Johnson, Jagdeeshan Suchith, have all fulfilled this role at times.

The pace battery

As mentioned above, there need to be 3 pure fast bowlers at least, apart from the 4th fast bowling option in Hardik Pandya, a role previously fulfilled by Kieron Pollard (also in 2020 in Hardik’s absence). Out of the three options, there should be at least one left arm fast bowler, as most of the Indian batsmen have had left arm swing as their traditional pet peeve. Considering the unfortunate shortage of fast bowlers in India, it is advised to use two overseas spots in the fast bowling department.

There have been bowlers like Tim Southee, Ben Cutting, James Pattinson, etc. in this role, but Lasith Malinga has been a fixture. His Indian bowling partner has been amongst Jasprit Bumrah, R Vinay Kumar, or Dhawal Kulkarni. The second overseas bowler, who gives in the left arm angle has been Mitchell McClenaghan for a majority of the seasons. Mitchel Johnson, Jason Behrendorff and Mustafizur Rahman have also filled those shoes.

Currently, Mumbai Indians have Trent Boult in that position, and is partnered by Bumrah and Coulter-Nile. The powerplay overs are generally utilised by the left armer for whatever swing he can obtain, and the death overs have been owned by Bumrah and Malinga, often with one of the other two pacers of the extra bowling option.


The spin attack

Every team prefers having their two spin bowling options as two bowlers who can spin the ball in two different directions. With Harbhajan spin handling the off spin department, his bowling partners have been left arm orthodox bowlers Pragyan Ojha, Suchith and Krunal Pandya. Since Harbhajan’s departure, Mumbai Indians have struggled to find a consistent off spinner. Currently, Mumbai Indians have a leg spinner in Rahul Chahar (previously Mayank Markande) along with Krunal Pandya. If the team is filled with left handers, or if it is a spinning track, Jayant Yadav gets his chances, as he can bat a bit too and provides the off spin option to counter the lefties. Whenever Jayant has been summoned, he has delivered by picking the key left hander’s wicket (Raina in the 2019 qualifier and Dhawan in the 2020 final)

The sixth bowler

As mentioned above, Pollard and Hardik Pandya have fulfilled this role. They must have the ability to crack the middle overs, provide breakthroughs, or just ball a simple run a ball over, covering for a bowler having a bad day.

This is how Mumbai Indians have managed to maintain a balanced playing XI. The role of Ricky Ponting cannot be ignored when it comes to the balanced XI aspect. He was the one who cracked the two overseas pacers code quite early, considering the abundance of batsmen and spinners in Indian locals. Now that he is coaching Delhi Capitals, he has employed similar tactics in balancing a playing XI. Even the Indian team has been looking to follow the Mumbai Indians’ template, utilizing most of the MI players in their squad. We wind up the article taking a look at how these three teams stack up.

Role	MI 2021	DC 2021	India 2021
Accumulator	Rohit	Dhawan	Rohit
Dynamic opener	de Kock	Shaw	Rahul
Middle order 1	Suryakumar	Iyer	Kohli
Middle order 2	Kishan	Pant	Iyer
Finisher	Pollard	Hetmyer	Pant
Fast all rounder	Hardik	Stoinis	Hardik
Spin all rounder	Krunal	Axar	Jadeja
Spinner #2 (bat 8)	Chahar	Ashwin (8)	Sundar(8) / Chahal
Fast #1	Coulter-Nile (8)	Rabada	Bhuvi (8)
Fast #2	Bumrah	Ishant	Bumrah
Left Fast #3	Boult	Nortje (right)	Natarajan

 

In the previous blog, we talked about Mumbai Indians finding a balanced combination more often than not. But how many times do Mumbai Indians play their strongest season’s XI?

It is found out that instead of playing the best combination throughout the tournament, it is smarter to try combinations, check the form of the bench strength, give rests to the players, and put forth the best team towards the end of the tournament, in the crucial games. Let’s take a look at Mumbai Indians’ strongest teams season wise. Here, the selection criteria is the player's form in that particular season and the basic requirement is that the player should be available for selection for at least 50% of the games.

2008
Sachin Tendulkar (c), Sanath Jayasuriya, Robin Uthappa, Dwayne Bravo, Abhishek Nayar, Shaun Pollock, Yogesh Takawale (wk), Siddharth Chitnis, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dilhara Fernando, Ashish Nehra.

Games played together: 0
Harbhajan Singh would have replaced Chitnis had he not been banned for slapping Sreeshanth

2009
Sachin Tendulkar (c), Sanath Jayasuriya, Ajinkya Rahane, JP Duminy, Abhishek Nayar, Dwayne Bravo, Pinal Shah (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rohan Raje, Lasith Malinga.

Games played together: 0
Zaheer Khan was injured for a major half, else would have replaced Rohan Raje.

2010
Sachin Tendulkar (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar, Saurabh Tiwary, Ambati Rayudu (wk), JP Duminy, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando.

Games played together: 2 - The semi final and the final
Fernando was brought into the team only towards the end as a part of the experimentation. Ryan McClaren played most of the games, but Fernando provides more balance


2011
Sachin Tendulkar, Aiden Blizzard, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu (wk), James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Tirumalsetti Suman, Harbhajan Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Lasith Malinga, Munaf Patel.

Games played together : 1 - The eliminator.
Andrew Symonds was persisted with for a long time, despite not being in a great form

2012
Sachin Tendulkar, James Franklin, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh (c), Pragyan Ojha, RP Singh, Lasith Malinga, Munaf Patel.

Games played together: 0
Dwayne Smith joined the team too late, else would have slotted as the opener with Sachin.

2013
Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Pragyan Ojha, Mitchell Johnson, Lasith Malinga.

Games played together: 0
Sachin was injured towards the end, but the team which played the final and Qualifier 2 was the ideal team mentioned above, just with Aditya Tare in for Sachin.

2014
CM Gautam, Lendl Simmons, Rohit Sharma (c), Corey Anderson, Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Aditya Tare, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga

Games played together: 2 - vs SRH and KKR (9th and 10th league game). Could have played more but Malinga had to leave for national commitment after the KKR game

2015
Lendl Simmons, Parthiv Patel (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Ambati Rayudu, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Jagdeesha Suchith, R Vinay Kumar, Mitchell McClenghan Lasith Malinga.

Games played together: 6
The reason why this team won 9 of their last 10 games was the fact that no changes were made to the winning combination


2016
Rohit Sharma (c), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Nitish Rana, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Jos Buttler, Harbhajan Singh, Tim Southee, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah.

Games played together: 1 - vs RCB. Hardik Pandya played almost every game this season, but was eventually dropped owing to his poor form, and hence won’t make the ideal XI for that year either.

2017
Lendl Simmons, Parthiv Patel (wk), Nitish Rana, Rohit Sharma (c), Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Johnson, Lasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah.

Games played together: 0
Just like 2013, the number 0 doesn’t do justice to the squad selection here as well. Before Jos Buttler left for a national commitment, he opened instead of Simmons. Rayudu missed almost the entire season but was back for the playoffs and slotted in for Rana. Johnson replaced the other Mitch and Karn Sharma replaced Harbhajan for the playoffs too. Hence, the team was balanced throughout the season, though the most perfect XI didn’t play together

2018
Suryakumar Yadav, Evin Lewis, Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Mayank Markande, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah, Mustafizur Rahman.

Games played together: 3 (4th, 5th and 6th league stage game). Pollard was dropped later, and Ben Cutting was given priority over playing Mustafizur and McClenaghan together.

2019
Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah, Lasith Malinga.

Games played together: 2 - Last league game and the final. Could have played the Qualifier as well, but Jayant Yadav played instead of Mitch McClenaghan on a spinning track

2020 and 2021
Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah.

Games played together: 3 in 2020 - Qualifier and the 8th and the 9th league game, none in 2021
Similar to 2013 and 2017, the ideal team could have played more games together, had Coulter Nile started instead of James Pattinson who played half the season. When he played, Rohit was injured for a few games. Coulter-Nile hardly played in 2021, and when he did, MI preferred Saurabh Tiwary over Kishan


Best 3 years ranked according to the selection strategy
1.
2019-21 - The extraordinary balance of the team, with everyone’s role perfectly defined, and the long rope given to every player makes this the best selection period
2.
2015 - After initial chopping and changing, the winning combination was finally found out.
3.
2017 - The structure of the team was clear right from the start, and every substitution thereafter was like-for-like.

And now the worst 3
3.
2016 - Rohit shouldn’t have opened. It made Buttler a compulsion as well as a liability in the middle order. Guptill could have opened, or Buttler himself. One good thing was the fact that the failure of the Rohit opening experiment ensured that he doesn’t open till we develop a strong middle order
2.
2018 - You just can’t drop Pollard, and absolutely no need to change the two overseas pacer strategy that has worked for us since forever.
1.
2012 - It hurts the most when your squad is filled with match winners, and still you cannot put a competitive team on the field. Sachin’s injury in the opening game totally messed up the opener combination. Gibbs, Levi, Blizzard, Jacobs, Suman, and even Rayudu were tried. Franklin, despite being a middle order batsman, seemed to be the most comfortable opener, till Dwayne Smith finally got his chance in the last league stage game. RP Singh wasn’t managed well either, while Munaf and Dhawal Kulkarni weren’t given games systematically either.

Finding out the best winning combination is very important to bring the best out of every player. Good selection has led to Mumbai winning titles in the past, and we hope this continues in the future too.

The story of how Mumbai Indians won their first ever silverware, despite the injury concerns under Harbhajan's leadership

Date: 9th September 2021

When teams used to walk onto the field in their franchise jerseys in September-October to play the Champions League in the early 2010s, it used to seem like the interest earned on the IPL extravaganza in the month of May. After a good English Summer, or a couple of series in the subcontinent, watching CLT20 used to be a fun dose of T20 for about half a month. The teams who narrowly missed out on winning the IPL title had a chance for redemption here, but Champions League was not just about the IPL. It was so much more than that. The finest teams of the world, who dominated their respective leagues were here to prove their mettle, and crown themselves as the Champions of the world, not just their nation.


The first season of CLT20 went pretty bland for the Indian fans, as none of the team made it to the Semis. In the second season, held in South Africa, RCB made it to the Semis while Chennai Super Kings were crowned the Champions. For the third season, the tournament was back in India, and was to be played at Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. Having missed out on their chance at the trophy in the IPL, Mumbai Indians were confident of making a serious impact at the CLT20. A strong MI side won 2 and lost matches in the previous edition of the Champions league, and couldn’t make it to the Semis. This time over, the team looked equally strong, and playing in Indian conditions, they fancied their chances.

During India’s tour of England, Sachin had to pull out of the ODI series due to his swollen right big toe. The injury was serious enough, and not only did it delay his 100th century, but also ruled him out of the Champions League. Missing their leading run scorer of the past two seasons was a huge blow for Mumbai Indians. Things got worse for MI when Rohit fractured his finger in the First ODI and was ruled out of the rest of the series as well as the Champions League. Things got worse for MI when almost every second Indian player got injured. Munaf Patel, the second leading wicket taker of IPL 2011 got injured, while the other players to join the injury list were Suryakumar Yadav, Aditya Tare, Pawan Suyal, Ali Murtaza and Dhawal Kulkarni. This meant that not only did MI lose their 3 pillard from the starting XI, they also missed their strongest like-to-like backups. When the 15 men squads for CLT20 was to be announced, Mumbai could put only 14 players, including exactly 7 Indians, and 7 overseas players.

According to the rules, Mumbai would have to play all of the Indian players, along with 4 overseas. However, in a tournament that big with so many pre-existing injury concerns and matches being spaced apart only by a day or two, it is not possible to bring in a replacement in case any of the players gets injured. Hence the team management made a request to the organisers, to allow them to play 5 overseas players in the Playing XI. However, the condition was that as soon as an Indian player would get fit, this provision would be withdrawn. Also, the provision was valid only in the group stage, and if Mumbai Indians reach the Semis, they will have to get back to 4 overseas players. It was the logically correct decision, and was agreed upon by everyone.


The squad led by Harbhajan Singh, consisting of star players and the club legends Pollard and Malinga, along with a few international players, who had either retired, were past their prime or were struggling to make a mark on the international stage yet, and 6 very young Indian players who wanted to prove their worth, were all set to play their first game.

Mumbai Indians were drafted in the same group as the IPL Champions and the CLT20 defending Champions Chennai Super Kings. The team were going to clash with each other at Chennai first up. They met only once in the IPL season, and the match played at Wankhede was dominated by MI, with Rohit Sharma scoring 87, and the bowling side led by Harbhajan Singh picking 5 wickets. However, CSK had made Chepauk their fortress, winning all their league stage games there as well as the Final. Beating CSK at Chepauk was going to be an uphill task.

Harbhajan lost the toss, and Chennai batted first. Despite Malinga getting Vijay cheaply and Raina getting stumped in an interesting way, Hussey’s 81 carried CSK to 158. Watching MS Dhoni getting back into the groove with a handy 22* after all the England tour horrors lowkey made every Indian fan happy. Davy Jacobs and Aiden Blizzard came out to open for MI. Both of them had struggled to seal the opener’s spot alongside Sachin in the IPL season. Here at Chennai, they gave MI a good start, trying to hoick every single delivery making the use of the field restrictions, and scored 49 runs in the powerplay. But the next 4 overs produced 4 wickets, two each for Bravo and Raina and MI were 67/5 in 10. Sathish departed soon after hitting a four and a six. With 5 overs to go, MI needed to score 58, a tough task but very possible as long as Pollard was out there. After hitting a four off Morkel, Pollard skied up in the air and Dhoni caught it safely.

When Malinga walked out to bat with 54 needed off 28, even the biggest of MI fans had given any hopes of a victory. Malinga hit Morkel for a four to end the over, but when he hit Jakati for a six over long on followed by another one which looked like a mirror image, suddenly 33 off 21 seemed like a possibility. The pair ensured they bat long rather than trying to score quickly, and it came down to 22 needed of 10, when Malinga hit Morkel for a six over long off. Malinga has always been the king of the death overs with the ball, but this time he was doing it with the bat. He hit Bollinger for a four in the next over, and when Harbhajan was back on the strike with 5 needed of 3, he hit a boundary to level the scores. A single on the next ball helped MI pull an incredible victory, which made its way to the list of all time best El Clasicos. Malinga was the man of the match for his out-of-the-textbook 37 off 18 balls, with 3 sixes and 3 fours. Captain Harbhajan’s supporting act of a 20 ball 19 was crucial in his side getting 2 points early on in the tournament.


2 days later, Mumbai Indians were facing the team that played a big hand in them acquiring Pollard. Trinidad and Tobago is a place that has produced exceptional cricketers over the years, including former MI player Dwayne Bravo who suggested MI to sign Kieron Pollard before the IPL auctions. But when Pollard smashed 54*(18) vs New South Wales in the 2009 CLT20, no way were they getting Pollard cheaply. Pollard entered the auction and as many as 4 franchises bid him till the upper limit of $750k, and MI won him in the secret bidding process. Trinidad and Tobago has managed to go unbeaten till the 2009 Finals, but faltered in the last stage. At Bengaluru, they were opening their campaign against MI.

T&T won the toss and chose to bat first. Lendl Simmons, a Mumbai Indians star-to-be, gave T&T a good start in the powerplay on a flat Chinnaswamy deck. In the 5th over, running a double, Simmons felt there was no need to ground his bat as he was easily making it the crease. Rayudu casually flicked the bails and the appeal was sent upstairs. While Simmons body had crossed the crease, his bat was in the air and his foot was just on the line, so he had to go back to the pavilion. MI skipper Harbhajan led from the front picking 3 wickets and crushing their middle order. The lower order tried to get quick runs making the use of the short boundaries, but ended up getting bundled for a mere 98. What was worse was that they wasted 22 balls of their innings, getting bowled out in just 16.2 overs. Davy Jacobs’ injury concerns made way for Symonds in this game, and hence Tirumalsetti Suman opened alongside Blizzard. However, both got out without contributing much. Things went from bad to worse when both Franklin and Symonds departed on ducks. MI were 16/4 in the 6th over with Pollard and Rayudu in the middle. In the 9th over with the team score at 33, Pollard got bowled in a bizarre way, with the ball taking the inside edge of his bat, onto the pads and ricocheting to the stumps. Sathish and Rayudu tried steadying the ship.

The fact that the required run rate was still below 6 when Sathish walked in give him and Rayudu the freedom to take their time. Sathish’s 25 ball stay bore just 14 runs, and when he got out MI still needed 34 off 26. Harbhajan hit a six but got out soon after that. When Ravi Rampaul ended his spell with figures of 3/17, MI needed 11 to win in the last over. A game that was supposed to be MI’s best shot at boosting their run rate on a ground traditionally termed as high scoring, had boiled down to this. Rayudu was on the strike and has set his eyes in having already faced 44 balls, but he didn’t mind taking a single and giving the strike to Malinga. The hero of the last match punished the full toss down the ground for a six. He gave the strike back to Rayudu to do the finishing rituals. The next two balls that followed saw some desperation from the Mumbai Indians, and it showed in their running between the wickets. First Rayudu hit one straight back to the bowler, but Malinga was already out of his crease looking to get back on strike. The bowler ran Malinga out. On the next ball, Rayudu had to run for two and come back on the strike, but was run out in the process.

This meant that the new man Yuzvendra Chahal had to score 2 runs off the last ball to save the match. He was having a rough tournament so far with the ball. What does a lanky no.11 batsman do in such a situation? Doesn’t look like he would tonk a six, does he run a safe single and let batsmen do the job in the Super Over? So many things in his mind. The bowler bowled a low full toss, as if he was just trying to avoid a boundary and was fine with a single being conceded. Chahal swung his bat and somehow got a piece on it. He ran as if he was running for life. It didn’t look like a double, and the ball was almost collected by Ramdin when Chahal was way short, but he fumbled under pressure. Chahal grounded his bat and kept running to celebrate the little heist that MI had just pulled off. Not only did they save the embarrassment of failing to chase 98, but had also managed to add 2 more points and reach 4. Rayudu’s 36 of 47 balls turned out to be the match saving innings, but Chahal was clearly the man of the moment. Ravi Rampaul who got 3 early wickets for T&T and gave them hopes to defend a score that low was awarded the Man of the match award.


Up next were the Cape Cobras, who had managed to beat NSW but went down against CSK. despite ex-MI star JP Duminy picking 4. The major threat from their side was Dale Steyn, while the Cobras also featured 3 players who joined MI a season later; Richard Levi, Herschelle Gibbs and Robin Peterson.
Harbhajan’s bad luck at the toss continued, but this time MI were put in to bat. Sarul Kanwar, a young opener from Punjab and the only benched Indian player in the MI dugout was brought in place of Suman. He opened along with Blizzard. Mumbai batting was yet to click this season. The fact that the only batsman to aggregate 50 runs in the tournament so far was Malinga was an indication of that. Sarul Kanwar’s innings against the Cobras was just the breath of fresh air that Mumbai Indians needed. He scored 45 runs in just 21 balls, hitting 3 fours and 5 sixes. Mumbai got the perfect start with 59 runs in the powerplay. However, twin strikes from Peterson and then Duminy getting Rayudu out put MI back into a familiar position. It made Mumbai Indians dial their SOS code; Kieron Pollard. He started hitting sixes for fun, as he always does. Franklin chipped in too with two sixes. Pollard hit 58 off just 37 balls and MI finished with 176/5 in 20 overs. As Symonds and Harbhajan (now besties) walked back together, it started raining. The rain continued and Cobras couldn’t come out to bat. The match was abandoned and points were shared. Mumbai had almost ensured their qualification, with the only mathematical possibility of elimination being if CSK and NSW won their next match and their faceoff got washed out. To kill the chances of that happening, MI went to Chennai to face NSW - New South Wales Blues.


NSW has always been one of the strongest domestic teams in the Australian domestic circuits. The Sydney based club has produced some of the finest players in the Australian history, right from Sir Don Bradman to the Waugh brothers, to Brett Lee, Steve Smith and David Warner. In fact the current Australian Test bowling quartet - Starc Cummins Hazelwood and Lyon - is entirely a product of New South Wales. They were also the winners of the inaugural Champions League.

At Chepauk, on Gandhi Jayanti, Harbhajan finally won the toss. The team was yet to win a match batting first, and to practice for such situations in the knockouts, Harbhajan elected to bat first. Clark Starc and Clark again got 3 MI wickets in the first 3 overs, while Cummins bowled Pollard too in the 5th over and MI collapsed to 27/4. The Queenslander Andrew Symonds came in to bat next against his rivals, but could add just 9 runs playing 17 balls. He was bowled by Steve O’Keefe, the man who later went on to five nightmares to the Indian fans at Pune in 2017. Sathish joined Franklin in the middle but the runs were just not coming. MI batted out the entire 20 overs, scoring just 100/7, with Franklin’s lone 42* in 51 balls. Not a single six was hit in the MI innings.

The batting order of NSW was star studded, and chasing a target of 101 looked like something their openers Watson and Warner would finish off without needing anyone else. However, NSW batting had not been at par with its on-paper strength. They lost the first match after they scored 135, and could only tie against T&T chasing a target of 140. Abu Nechim, the bowler who was notorious for conceding 27 runs against Gayle in the 2011 Qualifier 2, gor Watson plumb on the first ball of his over, but before the umpire could rule him out LBW, the ball went back to hit the stumps. Warner hit Nechim for back to back fours in the over, but on the last ball he was caught at short extra cover by the skipper. Getting the openers back in the hut by the second over was a little consolation, but MI needed much more. Lasith Malinga got NSW’s captain Katich lbw on a duck in the next over. Harbhajan decided to extend Nechim’s spell, who got his 3rd wicket in the last over of the powerplay. Chahal was introduced as soon as the power play was over, and he got his first career wicket in form of Moises Henriques, NSW’s hero in the last game. The Blues were reduced to 28/5, and while the required run rate was still below run a ball, Mumbai had already made significant inroads with the in form Harbhajan yet to bowl.

Ben Rohrer joined a young Steve Smith in the chase, who had already played 10 balls scoring just a run. The batsmen kept ticking the scorecard, and chased off the target without any further hassles. The result meant that Mumbai had to wait for the results of the next matches to get a confirmation whether they had reached the knockouts or not. However, 4 hours later T&T beat CSK and it put the stamp of approval on Mumbai’s qualification.

Meanwhile, back in Mumbai, the Shalini Bhalekar trophy was being conducted by Mumbai Cricket Association. A day before the Cobras fixture, Suryakumar Yadav started his innings playing for Chandrakant Pandit XI. He batted the entire day and finished on 191 the next day. Having proved his match fitness in the local tournament, he was immediately called up by the Mumbai Indians to join the squad.

Mumbai were going to face the English club Somerset in the Semi Final at Chennai, a day before the final was going to be played at the same venue. The English club had topped the Group B, and had exactly the same points as Mumbai Indians. Harbhajan won the toss and chose to bat. Mumbai Indians had been utterly poor with the bat apart from the washed off affair against the Cobras. Their only hope was putting some total on the board and hope that the bowlers would defend it somehow. Aiden Blizzard looked in much more control in this innings than he did in the rest of the tournament, where he just tried to slash every ball to the boundary. He scored 54 before being bowled by Murali Kartik. Sathish SKY and Pollard took MI till 160/5. On a slowish Chennai pitch, it was a total good enough to defend. However, what followed was a piece of beauty from the IPL’s Purple Cap holder, Lasith Malinga.


On the very second ball of the innings, he bowled a toe crushing yorker to send Peter Trego back on a duck. In his second over, he looped in a slow yorker which van der Merwe couldn’t read at all. Despite Malinga’s double strikes, Somerset were totally on the track of the chase with Kieswetter hitting a fine 62. With 20 needed of 10, James Franklin got Jos Buttler and Kieswetter out in a span of 3 deliveries, but the job was yet not done. Malinga had to defend 15 runs in the last over. But it was just that kind of day for Malinga, that he would have defended even 5 runs off the over. He got wickets of two back to back, both clean bowled like the two dismissals he got early on in the innings and Mumbai sealed the game by 10 runs. No one in the world has witnessed someone bowling yorkers at will with such each and pitch perfect execution. The only performance that might come close is Dale Steyn in the 2014 WT20. There was not much time to celebrate Malinga’s awesome performance, as in less than 20 hours, the Final was about to start.


Much to the delight of the Indian fans, it was an all Indian final. Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chepauk. Four months ago, in a clash between the same teams at the same venue, MI were ruled out of the IPL. It was a perfect setup for a revenge. RCB had last played on this venue in the IPL 2011 Finals and didn’t have really great memories of it. However, the RCB team looked extremely strong this season. They were coming on the back of chasing two successive 200+ totals, defeating in Semis the only team that could beat MI in the tournament so far - NSW blues. Virat Kohli looked in a brutal form, and Chris Gayle, the Orange Cap winner from the IPL season looked as threatening as ever. The batting was stacked up with Dilshan, Mayank Agarwal and Saurabh Tiwary, while the bowling was led by the pacy Dirk Nannes and the wizard Daniel Vettori. Vettori was also the captain of RCB, making it a rare instance of two spinners captaining their side.


When Harbhajan won the toss and chose to bat against the chasemasters, it looked like the opponents’ past exploits didn’t matter to him at all. All he knew was what suited his team the best. Mumbai Indians didn’t get the greatest of the starts. In a total mix up between Kanwar and Blizzard, the latter had to sacrifice his wicket. Kanwar himself didn’t last long and was cleaned up by Nannes a few overs later. MI looked pretty much in control with 105/3 in the 14th over, but a soft dismissal of SKY, the second run out of the innings, followed by Franklin getting run out on 41 three balls later, dug a hole for MI they never recovered from. Vettori got rid of Pollard and Harbhajan in the next over and it was over to batsman Malinga again to take MI to a respectable total. He hit two sixes in his 16 runs and MI were bowled out for just 139. They were surely 20 runs short and needed to get rid of the famed Top 3, only to hope that the young Agarwal and Tiwary would crumble under pressure. RCB scored 38 in the first four overs to push MI further out of the match.

Malinga brought the first breakthrough when he bowled his national team captain Dilshan on the first ball of the fifth over, while Harbhajan brought himself on against Gayle and got him trapped lbw on the last ball of the powerplay. When Harbhajan got Kohli’s wicket, it almost looked like RCB’s strongest hope of winning fell apart. They were 73/4 in 12 overs, and every RCB batsman that followed threw his wicket away in an attempt to clear the boundary. Every wicket looked like a repeat telecast. When Aravind tried to reverse sweep against Malinga with 32 needed off 8 and got clean bowled, it summed up RCB’s batting performance. On the second ball of the last over, Raju Bhatkal skied one off Abu Nechim and the ball was caught by Sathish on the boundary. Mumbai Indians won the final by 31 runs and were crowned the CLT20 Champions 2011. The skipper who led this young team to an improbable victory won the man of the match award for picking 3 wickets that night, of Gayle Kohli and Vettori. Man of the tournament went to the leading wicket taker of the series Lasith Malinga, who picked 10 wickets, and in a very very rare feat, as many as 8 of them were bowled, the other 2 being LBWs. In the modern game of T20 where most of the wickets are outfield catches, it was stunning that he didn’t require to involve even a single fielder in picking up those wickets. Apart from being lethal with the ball, he delivered with the bat 3 times out of the 4 times he batted, including winning the game against CSK single handedly and hitting crucial sixes in the other games.


The Champions League 2011 was one for the ages. Sachin Tendulkar, who travelled with the team in the entire tournament as the mentor, decided to handover permanent captaincy to Harbhajan Singh after this historic win. For most of the players from this Playing XI, it was their last match for Mumbai Indians, but this tournament showed other how important it is to back youngsters, something MI had done for the past two seasons and has always been doing, producing gems that went on to play for India as well. Amongst all the editions of CLT20, and all the journeys that the Champions had, MI 2011 would be right up there at the top. The CSK game is always brought up in MI CSK rivalry convos, and it the highlight of Malinga’s batting career. The heist against Trinidad and Tobago brought Yuzvendra Chahal to the world’s notice. Malinga’s destruction against Somerset, James Franklin’s underrated innings with the bat and cameos with the ball, and Harbhajan finishing it off in style in the finals. The tournament is summed up pretty well by a comment on Cricinfo -

Mumbai Indians. Perennial underperformers in the IPL. Champions League winners. Couldn't have been more improbable. New captain, half-fit side, part-time misfiring keeper, strike bowler leading with the bat. Scrambling to chase 98 off the last ball with one wicket left. And now champions, by a comfortable margin.

For those who remembered the long haired guy being our key player in the 2010 campaign, and were thinking where did he disappear for 10 years before being relevant again, here's a journey through his career

Date: 29th September 2021

When Saurabh Tiwary stepped in to bat for MI in the season opener against CSK last year, many people were surprised to see that he is still around. What people were unaware about, was the fact that the guy was still just 30. He top scored for MI in an otherwise sorry loss, and played a few games that season later when Rohit got injured. Seeing him being relevant after 10 years must have made people think, where was this guy for so long, so here's a quick recap of Saurabh Tiwary's IPL career, and where was he between 2010 and 2020


The early days, 2008/09
In the 2008 U19 WC, Tiwary represented the successful Indian side in every game, and scored 115 runs at 28.75, and a SR of 65. He wasn't a big star like Kohli (both Virat and Taruwar), Jadeja, Tanmay Srivastava or Pradeep Sangwan, but was still decent and was snapped by Mumbai Indians. He played just 5 innings over the first two years, and scored just 39 runs at 13.

The breakthrough season of 2010

The season where MI finished as table toppers and the ultimate runners up, is remembered for three things. First being Sachin Tendulkar winning the orange cap at the age of 37, second, being how MI turned things around by trusting young Indian players, especially the ICL dropouts like Rayudu, Ali Murtaza and Stuart Binny (who played just one game). The third highlight of the season was Saurabh Tiwary, MI's second and overall the 8th leading run scorer of the season. He scored 419 runs at an average of 30 and SR of 136. He started the season with two fifties, both at SR of 160. He scored 52*(31) vs RCB in the semi final, and multiple 30s and 40s in crunch situations throughout the tournament. His dream season sadly ended with a duck in the finals, but he won the Emerging Player of the Season award. His performances earned him a national call-up, and he scored 49 runs across two innings in ODIs against NZ and Aus without getting dismissed.


2011-13, just an ordinary player
Saurabh was bought by RCB for 1.6 million dollars, making him the 7th costliest player at the auction. This salary was 60 times his salary at Mumbai Indians. Saurabh Tiwary has always idolized Dhoni, as they both belonged to Jharkhand and were heavy hitters of the ball. The RCB management decided to turn the long-haired Tiwary into their own Dhoni and made him play as a lower middle order batsman, often batting at no.6, expecting him to attack from ball one, unlike his no.3 or 4 position at MI, where he got enough time to bat and tackled spin well. Over the next three years, he scored just 487 runs, averaging 24, at a SR of mere 105 and even played slower than run a ball in 2011. He scored just one fifty in his entire stint, against PWI in 2013, where he was opening in place of an injured Dilshan.


2014-16, going unnoticed
Delhi Daredevils got Saurabh just above his base price in the 2014 auctions, but he had to miss the entire season due to a shoulder injury. He came back in 2015, and played just 6 matches, but did surprisingly well. He didn't have a significant role, batting at no.6, but he scored 109 runs in 6 innings without getting dismissed even once. In 2016, RPS snapped him and Albie Morkel from Delhi post the auctions through the transfer window. He was brought in as an opener for a couple of games after Faf du Plessis got injured, and he scored a fifty against MI. He scored another fifty that week against another of his former teams, RCB, batting at 3 this time. He scored 170 runs that season. In these three years, he was part of two teams which finished in the bottom 2 every season, and hence went a little unnoticed. In fact, he played more matches in the 2016 season than he played in the following years combined, but his stint at RPS is still forgotten.


2017 onwards, back home
MI bought back Saurabh Tiwary in the auctions as they didn't have many amendments to make in their pretty settled squad. After they ensured a top of the table finish, they decided to make six changes in their final game against KKR, and brought Saurabh Tiwary in to open so that Parthiv could get some rest. Tiwary delivered with a fifty, his third in his 5 career innings as an opener. MI bought him again in 2018, as well as 2020. He scored 103 runs in 5 matches in 2020, being MI's go to batsman in case of any injury, and played two fine innings this season against CSK and PBKS. Ever since returning to MI, Tiwary has scored 255 runs at 36.4, at a SR of 126.


Saurabh Tiwary is still 31, and an excellent player of spin. During all these years when he was in the limelight only during the IPL season, Tiwary has managed to maintain an average of 47 each in List A as well as First Class cricket. He has 19 first class centuries, including two double centuries, and also has 5 List A tons. He is still a pretty serviceable middle order batsman, especially on slower pitches, and MI use him smartly just like they use Jayant Yadav, and took a bold call of dropping Kishan for Tiwary. With two extra teams being added next year, Tiwary still has a few years left in his IPL career, and let's hope he makes it big

To put a balanced playing XI on the field, it's important to have enough depth and variety in the squad

Date: 11th February 2022

The modern game is driven by data. The backroom staff has become a very important factor of the game, as their analysis and calculations play a big role in every decision prior to the toss. In the previous article of our success mantra series, we look at how Mumbai Indians put a balanced XI on the field. Today, we take a look at how Mumbai build their squad in the auctions in order to have enough backups and variety to prepare a playing XI according to the conditions

In the first six years, there were mega auctions in 2008 and 2011, but more often than not, a player signed in the mega auctions stayed with the team for three years, and there were very few transfers or purchases during the auction. The mini auctions were mostly meant for the teams to battle it out for a new upcoming player. There was a mega auction in 2014, and the mini auctions since 2015 have become nearly as crucial as a mega auction, as they help to correct the mistakes made in the mega auction.

Mumbai Indians realised the role of talent scouting early on - and hence appointed John Wright as the talent scout in 2013. He had unearthed a gem in Jasprit Bumrah already, and in the coming years, his role along with his scouting team was only about to get bigger. We take a look at how MI performed in the auction yearwise.


2014
Before the auctions, the defending champions retained a core group, utilising their 5 retentions. Sachin Tendulkar had retired, and with an option to retain 2 overseas players, MI went for the club legends Pollard and Malinga. The other three retentions were captain Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Ambati Rayudu. For me, this batch will remain the face of MI for the people of my age, despite guys like Bumrah and Hardik taking over that role currently.

The squad picked in 2014 wasn't a world beating squad. It lacked a lot of things. The RTM was rightly used on Ojha to handle the spin department with Harbhajan, thus forming a good core. Mumbai bought Michael Hussey as one of the openers, Corey Anderson to support Pollard in the middle order and Zaheer to combine with Malinga to lead the bowling attack. They still needed a good keeper and another good batsman (one of them should be able to open) to complete their playing XI. However, retaining the core, followed by 3 high profile players cost MI a lot, and they low on cash after buying just 9 players. With less than 8cr remaining in their purse, MI managed to buy just 12 more players, 9 of them at their base price (below 50 lakhs).

Positives from the auction - The Ponting influence also meant that the foreign pace unit was well built, with buys like Hazlewood (who picked 4/30 against England two weeks before the auction), de Lange and Santokie (the leading wicket taker CPL 2013).

Negatives from the auction - Mismanagement in terms of money was the only negative thing, as it restricted MI from going for top names. MI still tried to bring the best out of the limited budget, buying very talented players like - CM Gautam (2nd leading run scorer of Ranji Trophy 2013), Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - Trying to get an aggressive opener, MI bid for Warner, Sehwag, McCullum, and even Parthiv. MI tried to buy back Maxwell, Axar, Kuldeep and Suryakumar, and looked interested in Unmukt Chand. MI gave up on Russell at 60 lakhs, and didn't press much for local boy Shardul Thakur.

Issues to be solved prior to the next season - Opening Indian batsman who could keep wickets, experienced Indian fast bowler, backup left arm spinner for Ojha (Shreyas Gopal was there as a right arm leg spinning option, but MI preferred finger spinners over wrist spinners at Wankhede), and a strong middle order Indian batsman.

2015
Despite all of the issues, MI managed to finish 4th in 2014. It doesn’t matter if you fall; what matters is how you bounce back. One positive during the season was MI acquiring Lendl Simmons as a replacement.

Resolving the issues from the past season - To solve the wicketkeeper opening batsman issue, MI traded in Parthiv Patel from RCB. To strengthen the Indian pace bowling unit, they traded in Vinay Kumar from KKR. They also traded in Unmukt Chand from RR to have a decent middle order batsman (who could also bat at the top if needed, much like Tare).

MI covered most of the bases in the trade window itself, and now just needed to rope in some backups. MI released just Hussey, Zaheer and Ojha, which meant the budget issues weren’t completely solved, meaning that MI could spend more than 50 lakhs on just one player - Aaron Finch. Most of the other players were picked at their base price, like Nitish Rana and Hardik

Positives from the auction - Hardik Pandya. His power hitting abilities, combined with the fact that he could chip in some overs, gave MI the liberty to replace Corey Anderson with a proper overseas fast bowler. Mitchell McClenaghan was stolen at his base price! Suchith, a 21 year old spinner was bought, and despite Ojha being bought back at his base price, Suchith occupied the spot in the playing XI (Ojha played just the opening game).

Negatives from the auction - None really. One might say relying too heavily on youngsters was a downside, but it effectively turned out to be an advantage. MI 2015 was one of the best examples of how fresh legs combined with some experience and inspirational leadership can win you trophies.

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - In an attempt to stack up the fast bowling reserves, MI bid for two NZ pacers, Adam Milne and Trent Boult, and also for the Aussie pacer, Sean Abbott (infamous for the recent Phil Hughes incident). Two talented local youngsters, Shreyas Iyer and Sarfaraz Khan were also bid for

Issues to be solved prior to the next season - The basic playing XI was ready. Just needed some backups in case of injuries.

2016
Continuing the pattern of investing in youngsters, MI bought Krunal Pandya and Nathu Singh in 2016. While the latter didn’t get a chance to play, Krunal was preferred over Suchith because of his batting abilities, giving birth to the Pollard-Hardik-Krunal power engine for the years to come. Mumbai also bought Jos Buttler.

Positives from the auction - Tim Southee was brought in, who came handy when Malinga had to pull out of the tournament due to injury.

Negatives from the auction - No one can foresee injuries, but MI lacked an overseas opener who could act as Simmons' backup. Jos Butller was going to bat in the middle order, forcing Rohit to open the entire season. Martin Guptill was named as Simmons’ replacement, but Pollard-Buttler-MitchMc-Southee was the preferred overseas lineup.

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - Even though Pollard was still bowling, Mumbai Indians from this season started looking for a proper all rounder who could bat at 7 or 8, and bowl 4 overs regularly. They bid for Chris Morris this season. They also bid for Shane Watson till 9cr, much more than what MI usually spend on their players. MI tried to steal Rishabh Pant from the auction too.

Issues to be solved prior to the next season - Honestly, the squad underachieved with Hardik and Buttler performing much worse than their potential, especially the former. This squad didn’t need to alter much. Maybe, with Harbhajan Singh aging a bit, they needed a strong spin backup, who could offer a bit with the bat.

2017
Ahead of 2017, again, MI didn’t need any major changes as Simmons and Malinga were back, making MI look good on paper again.

Positives from the auction - Mitchell Johnson was back, while Karn Sharma was brought in after his successful stint at SRH as Harbhajan’s backup. MI invested in Krishnappa Gowtham, (who had done well in the Ind vs Aus warmup game a day before the auctions), Kulwant Khejroliya and Nicholas Pooran - who was yet to play for his nation but showcased his six hitting ability in the CPL.

Negatives from the auction - None

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - With all bases covered, MI had the liberty to put all their money on a single name. If they get him, great, if they don’t, still fine. Ben Stokes was obviously going to be the player with the highest demand, and Akash Ambani, funnily enough, didn’t put his baton down at all during his bidding till a point. Another big name before the auction was Tymal Mills, and MI bid for him upto a fair limit as well. Apart from the big names, MI looked interested in Boult again, and the young sensation Rashid Khan was also bid for till the end.

MI won the IPL for the third time and the 2014-17 cycle was thus over, and 2018 was going to be a mega auction.


2018
Only 3 players could be retained, and the names picked themselves; Rohit, Hardik, Bumrah. The two RTMs went as expected as well, with Krunal RTMed being an uncapped player, while Akash Ambani slyly raised the RTM card when DD thought they got Pollard. The core was ready, it was the time to build a new squad now.

With RTM not used for Buttler, and Parthiv gone as well, MI needed a new wicketkeeper, a spot that bothered them a lot during the auction. They ended up overspending on a rather young Ishan Kishan, after CSK inflated the price. Lasith Malinga went unsold surprisingly, and he later joined MI as the bowling mentor.

The allrounder bought to support Pollard was Ben Cutting, while Suryakumar Yadav was bought owing to his flexibility in the batting order. Evin Lewis was bought for the opening position. To fill Malinga’s void, MI bought Pat Cummins, who had started taking significant steps in international cricket post his comeback from injuries, and also the death specialist Mustafizur. Jason Behrendorff was also bought. MitchMc was surprisingly left out, but came back as Behrendorff’s replacement. Adam Milne replaced Cummins. Mahela influence got in Akila Dhananjaya, one of Mahela’s favorite players as he had a lot of variations in his bowling (his 6/54 against India a few months before the auction is a popular spell, as India lost 7 wickets for just 22 runs after a century opening stand, still won in the end)

Positives from the auction - Flexibility of the players. Surya, Kishan and Rohit could play in any order with Lewis in the Top 4, according to the match conditions. The depth in the squad was good with all rounders like Pollard, Duminy and Cutting, all of them capable of hitting sixes.

Negatives from the auction - Spin department. Multiple issue; one, 0 Indian off spinners. Expecting Duminy to bowl 4 overs with his off spin, or spending an overseas spot for the off spinner Dhananjaya would cost MI, meaning that both the spinners would turn it away from the right handers. Krunal Pandya has backup in Anukul Roy, while the two wrist spinners were Rahul Chahar and Mayank Markande.

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - When the wicketkeeper lot began, MI went behind every player as they hadn’t bought Kishan till that point. The players include Buttler, Samson, Saha, Parthiv, Dinesh Karthik and de Kock (all of them till the last bid). They even got Uthappa before KKR RTMed him. The only other players whom MI bought before being snatched by the other teams on RTM were Pawan Negi (RCB) and David Miller (KXIP). MI went till the last bid for a few players, but couldn’t seal the deal. The players included Rahane, Chahal, Bravo, Dhawan, Kuldeep (all RTMed later), and ex-players Karn, Khejroliya and Rana. MI bid for the local boy and India U-19 star Prithvi Shaw, and also put a bid for U-19 bowling sensation Shivam Mavi.

Issues to be solved prior to the next season - Getting an Indian off spinner. The team was otherwise capable of more (as seen in the second half of the season), but losing 5 of the first 6 matches didn’t help.

2019
Ahead of the 2019 auction, Mumbai Indians didn't release a lot of international players. Mitch Mc was retained, at the cost of losing Cummins, while Quinton de Kock was traded in from RCB. This meant that MI had just one overseas slot left ahead of the auction. Lasith Malinga, who had registered himself for the auction again, was bought by MI at base price, utilizing the overseas slot.

Resolving the issues from the past season - Jayant Yadav was traded in from Delhi Capitals after the auctions to provide the off spin option whenever MI needed a third spinner, or when the opposition had a lot of lefties

MI were interested in Barinder Sran in the mega auctions as well, and this time they got him as a backup for Bumrah (who would need some rest in certain games as the World Cup was approaching too). Much like Malinga, another emotional buy was Yuvraj Singh. The young talents included Anmolpreet Singh, Rasikh Salam and Pankaj Jaiswal. Adam Milne, who was Pat Cummins' replacement last season, was later replaced by the record breaking Alzarri Joseph, who got injured too and was replaced by Beauran Hendricks

Positives from the auction - Unlike his comeback in 2017, where he seemed a little off, Malinga made a significant impact on the tournament this time over, with a couple of 4-wicket hauls and the fairytale ending to his career with THAT yorker to seal the final.

Negatives from the auction - None

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - Shivam Dube, who later acted as Hardik's replacement in the Indian team, was sought by MI as his backup, but RCB got him. Before getting Sran, MI tried getting in Mohit Sharma. Prabhsimran Singh was also bid for, as a back up for Kishan

MI got a playing XI this season which was as perfect as any team could get. Rohit promoted himself to open, alongside QDK, with the World Cup in sight and with Suryakumar's consistency giving him enough confidence that Surya could handle the middle order. With the pocket dynamite Kishan in next, followed by the power engine, this was a batting lieneup to envy. Krunal and Rahul led the spin department, with the pace troika of MitchMc, Malinga and Bumrah. For the next two season, the auctions hardly mattered for MI, because why fix what's not broken?

2020
After going after him in every auction, Trent Boult was traded in from Delhi, strengthening the pace attack further. Sadly, the Bumrah-Boult-Malinga destructive pace attack remained just a dream as Malinga had to pull out of the season later. Dhawal Kulkarni made a comeback after nearly a decade.

Positives from the auction - Nathan Coulter Nile made a perfect no.8 with his hitting abilities, while bowling 4 overs every game. He was the X-factor player MI roped in.

Negatives from the auction - None

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - Before going for Coulter Nile, MI tried for Chris Morris, but he went over budget. To back up Rahul Chahar, MI bid for Bishnoi, but gave up in the end. There was some interest shown in Yashasvi Jaiswal and Piyush Chawla.

2021
MI refreshed their bowling attack. They released Coulter Nile, and got him back along with Milne at the same cost. Piyush Chawla and Jimmy Neesham were roped in too. Arjun Tendulkar and Marco Jansen were the picks of the auction

Positives from the auction - Jimmy Neesham was a pretty handy backup player.

Negatives from the auction - None. The players being out of form was the reason behind MI’s struggles, not the auctions

Players bid for, but couldn’t be bought - The only such player was Chris Morris, who ended up being the costliest pick in the IPL history.

The team that will be hurt the most by the mega auctions taking place tomorrow is Mumbai Indians, as they have to lose a chunk of good players. It would be interesting to see how MI make additions to their retained core of Rohit, SKY, Pollard and Bumrah.